Hi Frazzled,
Shame about the gallstones, very painful Ive heard. Poor you!
Ive been doing the harcombe diet for around nearly 3 months and lost a fair bit of weight, so it does actually work.
Phase 1 is the 'detox' for 5 days. If your a veggie, you would be allowed eggs and tofu as your protein, along with unlimited veg and salad and natural yogurt, herbs and spices. You can also have brown rice, although it is limited. Im part of a harcombe diet club, and Zoe Harcombe has been revising the diet, and now porridge oats are alllowed on phase 1, but only 50gram. I used to be a vegetarian, and much prefer veggie food, and had quite a few veggie days on phase 1. Made a lot of nice omellettes, and tofu curries etc.
On Phase 2, you are still allowed the above, but now you have to food combine. No fats and proteins mixed with carbs. You could have a steak with peppercorn sauce and salad, strawberries and cream etc on a 'fat' meal, and have something like a hummous sandwich, or chips baked in olive oil, pasta with low fat sauce, or lentils and beans on a 'carb' meal. You can make it as fatty or not as fatty as you want. Even if you are having say a broccoli and cauliflower cheese bake, which is a 'fat' meal, you could use very low fat alternatives. In the book, zoe says you can do this for helath reasons if you want, but you dont have to.
Since following phase 2. Ive had a lot of carb meals, as I prefer vegetarian dishes. So Ive had lots of dhals, bean stew, veggie curries with tofu and beans etc. I tend toward the carb meals that still contain protein. But the fat in these are less. I do love fish though, and they are a fat meal, so I do a lot of fishcakes and fish pie with a cheesy sauce, so if you eat fish, it sis a great diet plan.
You can use the low fat alternatives if you want, even with the fat meals.
I hope this has explained it a bit. Any other questions, fire away!
P.s i still eat a lot of nuts, left over from my veggie days, and it doesnt seem to have effected my weight loss much.